


I want to set you free/You want the best for me

by barricadebooty



Category: The Centricide (Webseries)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Centricide - Freeform, Communism, Fluff, How Do I Tag, I Tried, Is this what jreg would have wanted, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Romantic Comedy, Romcom as in romantic communists, Sorta comedy?, There will be light angst but the ending will be happy, it'll be cute I promise, jreg - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25041193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barricadebooty/pseuds/barricadebooty
Summary: When Tankie and Ancom joined the centricide, they expected that they would have to put their lives on the line in the name of extremist glory, but they never expected that they would fall in love.
Relationships: Authleft/Libleft, Tankie/Anarkiddie, Tankie/Ancom, authcom/ancom
Comments: 10
Kudos: 66





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is super short but I'm making two more and they will be longer. Hope you enjoy! :)

Night had fallen upon the extremist household and Nazi and Ancap were already asleep, gathering energy for tomorrow because tomorrow would mark the beginning of the centricide. The extremists would have to fight the centrists, and if they won, their victory would grant them limitless power. Tankie and Ancom were on the living room couch, reading theory to try to get their minds off of the harrowing battles ahead. Tankie was rereading Lenin’s State and Revolution while Ancom was reading Kropotkin’s Conquest of Bread. 

“Tankie, I’m kind of cold, can you share the blanket with me?” said Ancom.  
“Of course, Anarkiddie! Blanket should be redistributed amongst all who need it!” Tankie replied with his slight Russian accent as he scooted over to sit closer to Ancom and laid the blanket over them. “Say, Anarkiddie, if I were to lead anti-capitalist revolution, would you join me?”  
“Sure, Tankie! We might disagree on some things, but I think you and I would make a great team!” replied Ancom as he put his arm around Tankie’s muscular shoulders.  
“You really think so?” Tankie asked, feeling slightly bashful about how reassuring Ancom’s arm felt around him.  
“Absolutely!” Ancom replied.

They continued to read but within an hour Ancom had fallen asleep on Tankie’s shoulder. _Anarkiddie tries to read theory but qui seems to get bored quickly,_ Tankie thought. _How do I get up without waking qui? Qui looks so peaceful when qui sleeps._ Tankie gently lowered Ancom’s head onto a pillow and slowly stood up. He carefully pulled the blanket over Ancom and went up to his room. Tankie was often cold and at times, cruel, but Ancom always had a way of thawing the pure crystalline ice that encased his heart.

In the morning, the extremist household received a phone call from their courageous leader, Jreg. The extremists crowded around the phone, turned on speaker mode, and listened to their leader’s message.

“Good morning anti-centrists, to begin the centricide, we must attempt to radicalize the moderates and get them to fight the centrists with us,” Jreg stated. “Nazi, you convert Conservative, Tankie, you convert Socialist, Ancap, you convert Libertarian, and Ancom, you convert Progressive. Understand?”

The extremists all replied affirmatively and thought that their missions didn’t seem too hard, but little did they know, the leader of the centrists, Radical Centrist, just sent the centrists on the exact same mission. With the extremists and the centrists both trying to pull the moderates over to their side, who will the moderates choose?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The extremists must now fight to convert the moderates, what will happen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! This one is slightly angsty, be prepared!

In the hopeful golden light of morning, the extremists set off on their missions. After some time walking, Tankie spotted Socialist alone and ran over to him.

“Hey! You care about workers’ rights, don’t you?” Tankie said.  
“Yes, I do!” Socialist replied.  
“Ok, perfect! You’ll be my comrade and help me guillotine the bourgeoisie in front of a crowd of cheering proletariat! This will be great!” Tankie said eagerly.  
“Woah woah woah there! A revolution of that sort would just lead to famine and bloodshed. We need to socialize the economy first!” Socialist replied.  
“That’s unfortunate... this isn’t going to work out...” Tankie said as he walked towards Socialist until he stood mere inches from his face.  
“W-what do you mean...?” Socialist asked nervously. In one swift movement, Tankie took Socialist’s head in his hands and snapped his neck. All of a sudden, he heard a faint ree-ing in the distance. _Anarkiddie is in trouble!_ He thought. _I have to go help quem!_

When Ancom spotted Progressive qui noticed that Political Nihilist had gotten to him first. _Goddamnit_ Ancom thought. Qui took a deep breath and charged at Political Nihilist. 

“Progressive, you really need to stop caring about things. There is nothing that you-” Political Nihilist’s speech was interrupted by a baseball bat to the shoulder. He fell to the ground with a groan.  
“Relying on a racist state is not an acceptable means of combating racism! Have you even read Kropotkin!?” Ancom yelled at Progressive.   
“I have read Kropotkin! and Chomsky!” Progressive said defensively. As he was saying this, Political Nihilist slowly rose from the ground. Before Ancom could respond to Progressive, qui was hit with a nihilism beam. It felt like a punch and an electric shock at the same time. Qui yelped and jumped back.   
“You’re gonna regret this, you Nazi!” Ancom yelled as qui attacked Political Nihilist with quis baseball bat. Ancom and Political Nihilist began to brawl and Progressive ran for the hills while making some remark about doing too many drugs. Political Nihilist struck Ancom’s bat with his nihilism beam and it cracked in half. 

“Hey! That was my favorite bat!” Ancom remarked.   
“Face it Ancom, it’s over. Just give up already, you can either make this easy for yourself by agreeing to become a Political Nihilist or you can make this a lot more painful for yourself by trying to fight me.” Political Nihilist said.  
“I’m not going down without a fight, you Nazi fuck!” Ancom shouted while punching Political Nihilist. Just then, Ancom was hit with the strongest nihilism beam yet. Qui fell back with a loud and high-pitched ‘ree’, filled with sorrow by virtue of knowing that these were his last moments as an extremist.

_I wish Tankie was here with me, I know he’d save me, god, I’ll miss him so much._ Ancom thought. Political Nihilist stood over Ancom and delivered the final nihilism beam. Ancom felt quis leftism and anarchism being drained from quis body. Qui then languidly stood up, feeling fatigued and... different.

“Well, I-I-I guess I really just don’t care anymore. Anarcho-communist revolution is just some pipe dream, I’ll join the centrists.” The former Ancom said, dusting the dirt off quis clothes.  
“Nah, you don’t have to do that. Just become a post-leftist, those guys don’t do shit!” Political Nihilist remarked. The former Ancom who now became Post-Left felt a sudden surge of revolutionary and anarchist energy surge through his body like electricity. He picked up half of his broken baseball bat and using all of his strength, hit Political Nihilist in the head with it.

“You Nazi fuck!” Post-Left yelled as he brought down the broken bat on Political Nihilist’s head another few times. Political Nihilist was then sucked into a vortex that looked suspiciously like a cheap video effect. Post-Left looked down at the ground, feeling like some important part of quem was missing, it was as if a puzzle piece was missing from the middle of the puzzle that was quis identity.

Suddenly, Tankie came running from the trees. 

“Anarkiddie! What happened? I heard your reeing and I went looking for you! Are you ok?” Tankie said as he rushed over to Post-Left and clasped quis left hand. “C’mon Anarkiddie, let’s go back to the extremist house, you don’t look well.” Post-Left shook his head and pulled his hand free of Tankie’s soft yet firm grip.  
“Stop calling me Anarkiddie.” Post-Left said, refusing to meet Tankie’s gaze.  
“Solnyshko, what’s wrong?” Tankie said, confused.  
“I... I don’t want to associate with you anymore, Tankie, I’m a post-left anarchist now, I don’t need leftism anymore... Anyways I have to go now, I’ll be living with the anarchists from now on.” explained Post-Left solemnly as qui dropped the broken piece of quis baseball bat that qui was holding in quis right hand.  
“What happened to your baseball bat? I could fix it once we get back to the extremist house! I could even make you a new one! You know I’ve been practicing my woodworking skills in preparation for guillotining Jeff Be-” Tankie stopped his speech when he noticed Post-Left looking down and shaking quis head. “Anarkiddie, or Post-Left, I don’t even know anymore, what will the centricide do without you... What will I do without you?”  
“I don’t know, Tankie, I’m gonna go.” Post-Left said. Qui then turned around and walked in the direction of a sign saying ‘Anarchist Headquarters 13 km north’.

“But Anarkiddie... I love you.” Tankie said softly, too quietly for Post-Left to hear. He stood there, in awe of the sentence that ripped it’s way out of his heart. He didn’t mean to say it but once the words had fallen from his lips, he could no longer deny how he felt. He felt blood pulsing at his temples as he took a few steps backwards. There was one thing going through his mind at that moment. _I need to get Anarkiddie back,_ he thought. _I’ll find a way, I have to._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all are liking this fic! The next chapter will be the last one and it will be published in about two weeks. Farewell until then!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Tankie succeed in getting Ancom back? We'll find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, the final chapter! It's going to be tender! Enjoy!!!

Tankie journeyed back to the extremist household with bitter tears pricking at his eyes. Once he got there, he found Nazi eating bratwurst and drinking German beer at the dining room table.

“Where the hell have you been? Ancap and I got back an hour ago! Ancap is in his room buying some stocks by the way.” Nazi said. He stopped speaking once he noticed that Tankie seemed distressed. “Tankie, what’s wrong? You know, this display of weakness is really pathetic.”  
“Anarkiddie is gone,” Tankie said. He was trying to sound strong and unaffected, but the slight cracking of his voice was threatening to betray his true feelings. “Qui became post-left. Qui said that qui wanted nothing to do with leftism, nothing to do with me... and qui left to join the anarchists.”  
“Good riddance! Why do you even care about that degenerate?” Nazi inquired.  
“It’s not that I care about quem! I-” Tankie blurted out. He paused to try to come up with an excuse that wouldn’t reveal his unspeakable devotion. “I just think that qui’s a really valuable asset to the centricide! He’s good at fighting and he’d scare the centrists, since qui’s always swinging around that bat of quis. I’m going to get quem back.”  
“Ok well maybe that degenerate might be useful to the team, but go after him tomorrow, it’s too late today.” Nazi said.  
“Da, I know.” Tankie sighed as he poured himself a shot of vodka.

Nazi went upstairs to play Call of Duty, he invited Tankie, but Tankie declined the offer. Tankie sat alone at the dinner table with only a bottle of vodka and a shot glass to keep him company. He would have drunk much more if he wasn’t so deep in thought. In this time, he hatched a plan to infiltrate Anarchist Headquarters. Emboldened by the alcohol, he was absolutely confident in his plan and committed to getting Anarkiddie back. Once he was done, he tipsily stumbled off to bed.

Morning came and Tankie was significantly less sure of himself. He rolled out of bed with a fog of doubt clouding his thoughts. There were a million ways that the plan could go wrong and the stakes were high. He was putting his life on the line but he knew that this was what he had to do. He dug through the closet and found a turquoise shirt that he never wears and a black pair of pants. He was about to leave before he spotted a black bandana that Ancom used to use as a mask during protests. He picked it up, thinking that he could turn it into a necktie since he was trying to look posh. However, once he held the piece of fabric in his hands, an unexpected wave of sadness and longing overcame him. He walked over to the mirror. _I have to stay strong for Anarkiddie,_ he thought as he tied the bandana around his neck like a necktie. He walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a piece of toast then he spread some varenye on it and left the house with the bread in his mouth, looking like an anime girl that was late to class. 

The walk to the Anarchist Headquarters was a few hours long and Tankie spent most of that time rehearsing what he was going to say.

“Hello, I’m Anarcho-Egoist!” He practiced saying while trying and failing to hide his Russian accent. _Blyat,_ he thought, _it’s always there, the slight rolling of my ‘r’s and the strange foreign sounds of my vowels._ He repeated the sentence again many times slowly until it felt familiar on his tongue. He even practiced his walk and posture. To embody his character, he tried to have a proper posture and walk in long, elegant strides, as opposed to his usual intimidating stance. His plan was to pretend to be Anarcho-Egoist so he could infiltrate the Anarchist Headquarters and try to convince Anarkiddie to come back. Tankie had met Anarcho-Egoist once at a pub about two months ago. Anarcho-Egoist told Tankie that he was about to board a train that would take him to the Realicide webseries and Tankie was struck by his eloquence and his decorative style of dress. Anarcho-Egoist wore a classy turquoise and black outfit with a necktie. All Tankie had to do was pretend to be Anacho-Egoist and say that he quit the realicide webseries and came back to rejoin the anarchists. In his disguise, Tankie looked almost exactly like Anarcho-Egoist since everyone in this webseries has very similar faces for some reason...

Tankie finally arrived at Anarchist Headquarters and it looked kind of like a meth den. He took a deep breath and knocked at the door. 

"Who's there?" A raspy voice snarled from within.  
"It's Anarcho-Egoist, I decided to quit the other webseries and rejoin my fellow anarchists." Tankie said in his best attempt at accentless speech.  
"Oh wow, you’re back! If you ever leave us again I’ll kill you!" Said the voice that Tankie now recognized as belonging to Insurrectionary Anarchist. Tankie saw Insurrectionary Anarchist once before, Insurrectionary Anarchist was beating a government official and laughing maniacally. He opened the door and Tankie audibly gulped.

Tankie was immediately hit with the smell of cigarette smoke, weed, and a hint of perfume. Gender studies and critical theory degrees were plastered across the walls, as well as posters of different obscure bands. He scanned the room and saw several ideologies. Insurrectionary Anarchist was chewing tobacco and holding a crowbar with dried blood all over it. Anarcho-Monarchist was wearing a crown and a cloak and had just stopped talking to Anarcho-Primitivist who was wearing a loincloth and holding a large stick. Mutualist and Anarcho-Pacifist were chilling on the couch. Anarcho-Pacifist was wrapped up in a wool blanket and Mutualist was smoking a blunt- wait actually two blunts- wait is he two guys? Nobody can really tell. Queer Anarchist was in an entirely pink outfit, praying at a shrine to non-binary gay trans Jesus. In the corner, lounging on a beanbag chair, was Post-Left, looking just the same as the last time Tankie saw quem. As soon as he made eye contact with quem a flash of recognition passed over quis face. Seeing Post-Left's face again gave Tankie the feeling of recovering something that he thought he had lost.

"So, Egoist, what made you come back here?" Asked Mutualist in an echoing voice.  
"Um well... I realized that the other series was a total spook." Tankie said. He was starting to regret that he had never read Stirner's book, all his knowledge of egoism came from memes and that one conversation he had with the Egoist. The main thing that he picked up was that he could call everything he disliked a spook.  
"Ok sure... but what happened to your glasses?" Inquired Queer Anarchist.  
"Uhhh... Those were a spook too!" Tankie said, just remembering that Egoist was wearing glasses when he had last seen him. The anarchists all regarded Tankie with mild suspicion while Post-Left just stared at him, eyes wide with shock.  
"Egoist! Buddy!" Post-Left said as he rose from the beanbag chair. "We're old friends, you guys wouldn’t mind if I went out to have a private talk with him for a moment, right?" Everyone nodded and Post-Left rushed towards the door, pulling Tankie by the wrist along with him.

"Why the fuck are you here, Tankie!?" Yelled Post-Left once they got out of Anarchist Headquarters. "Are you out of your mind!? They would have killed you if they knew who you really are!"  
"I-I came to ask you to come back with me." Tankie said slowly while regretting not having planned what he was going to say once he found Post-Left.  
"Tankie... I'm just an anarchist now, I've left the left. I don't need you anymore." Post-Left said. Tankie didn’t know what to say but then it suddenly came to him:  
"You recognized me back there... You could have betrayed me but you didn't! You still care about me!" Post-Left stayed silent for a moment.  
"How'd you recognize me anyways? I thought my disguise was pretty good..." asked Tankie nonchalantly.  
"I'd know you always, Tankie. The rolling of your 'r's, the way that you puff out your chest, the downward tilt of the corners of your lips, and the way your eyes lit up when you saw me, your irises looked like little suns." Post-Left said impulsively, giving away more than qui intended to. Now it was Tankie's turn to hold a moment's silence.  
"Anarkiddie," Tankie said as he took Post-Left's hands in his own. "Come back with me."  
"Our ideologies are incompatible, Tankie. I can't accept your statism and I know you won't be able to accept my anarchism." Post-Left said.  
"Well Anarkiddie, there’s a lot that I love about your politics. Your economic policies are actually pretty solid and you always show fascists who’s boss!" Tankie exclaimed.  
"And you do cut healthcare costs..." Post-Left admitted.  
"Well then... why don't we try leftist unity? I know that we have some differences but we could work on an anti-capitalist Revolution together. We're stronger together, and I know that I’m better when I'm with you." Tankie said while looking into Post-Left’s eyes earnestly.  
"That sounds great, but why haven't we already achieved that? what has been standing in the way of leftist unity?" asked Post-Left.  
"I-" said Tankie.  
"I-" said Post-Left.  
"I'm standing in the way of leftist unity." They both stated in unison.

Suddenly Post-Left felt a strange warmth, something fundamentally important was returning to quem. Post-Left momentarily saw a brilliant vision of a world in which the left was united and used their combined power to destroy capitalism. Qui became Ancom again. 

"Solnyshko, I want to set you free." Tankie said while squeezing Ancom’s hands tighter.  
“You want the best for me.” Ancom said with a smile  
“I do!” Tankie remarked.

Ancom leaned in and time stopped as quis lips intertwined with Tankie’s. Tankie wrapped his arms around Ancom’s smaller frame and he felt fireworks going off in his chest. The kiss was like a golden trophy of a victory shared between them. Ancom went up on quis tiptoes and pulled Tankie closer to deepen the embrace. Hypnotic flashes of violet and red overpowered their senses and they were swept up in their passion. The kiss struck them like a thunderbolt and it tasted like glory.

“I love you.” Tankie whispered as he gently traced Ancom’s jaw with his calloused fingers.  
“Let’s get out of here.” Ancom said softly while smiling and gazing fondly into Tankie’s eyes. Tankie and Ancom walked tenderly hand in hand away from Anarchist Headquarters while conversing vividly about anything and everything. The radiant light of the sun shone down through the trees and played over their pale faces, brilliant and auroral as their love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! I hope you liked my fic :). If you leave kudos or comments, I'll love you forever. My next project will actually be an original story that I'm going to write. It'll follow a group of 1920s New York socialites through a philosophical journey. I'll probably post it on this site but I don't expect it to gain much traction since it isn't fanfiction. Farewell, kind reader! Peace be with you! Bona fortuna!


End file.
